Partners
by ladycatseyes
Summary: Based on TC's Rainbow Six: Vegas for PSP. Cut off from his partner and his back up, Brian Armstrong stages a one man mission to get himself and his partner out of trouble.
1. Author's Note

Author's Note:

Author's Note:

This story involves the characters from Rainbow Six: Vegas for PSP.

I don't own Rainbow Six or any of the characters. I just wanna play with them for awhile. I promise to put them back the way I found them…well…almost the way I found them.

A few things to note:

I've only had experience with Rainbow Six: Vegas for PSP. I'm going off the characters from there. I've tried to keep them as close to the game as possible, with a few tweaks.

I am not now, nor have I ever been a military expert. If I get the terminology wrong, I'm sorry. Take it up with the General. LOL.

This story is set BEFORE the events of R6: Vegas.

This is my very first attempt at a first person POV. Hope its okay!


	2. Chapter 1

"Joanna, we're just inside the inner perimeter."

"Copy that, Brian. We circled around from where we dropped you off. We're out of sight about a mile from the compound, down from the east exit."

"Close enough for comfort." I responded. I turned my attention to the man hidden in the bushes next to me. "Well, old man?"

"You know I hate it when you call me that." Shawn Rivers voice, richly British, responded from within the mask that covered most of his head and face. He only just managed to sound severe.

"I could call you Grandpa."

"Just try." He warned. He reached up and pulled at his mask so that it fit properly under his night vision goggles. I never understood why he wanted his face covered. I never wore a mask. Personally, I wanted people to know they just got their ass kicked by Brian Armstrong, Rainbow Six.

It took a certain kind of soldier to be out here in the middle of the night, hidden in scrub brush on a hill overlooking a desert compound. It took an even better one when you added the fact that this compound wasn't in the Middle East or northern Africa. This compound was in northern Arizona. Shawn and I were apparently a certain kind of soldier. We were Rainbow Six.

Tonight, Shawn and I weren't after the usual terrorists, at least not the kind most people think of. Our mission was simpler, albeit just as important. We were here to stop Tomas Juarez.

Tomas Juarez made his first millions selling drugs from South America. He'd moved on to selling weapons in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Now, he was making his money selling both in my own backyard. He had buyers all over the states. Juarez was getting rich. Shawn and I were here to stop it.

"Infiltrate Juarez's desert compound and locate his list of buyers." Our orders were simple. Somewhere inside the huge mansion was Juarez's contact list. Our job was to get past the two dozen men who protected the building and get that list. Once we had it, we were one step closer to stopping guns and drugs from entering the States.

"We've confirmed that Juarez isn't in the building, Brian. One of our contacts has him at an art auction in Phoenix." Joanna said. "Satellite imaging shows seventeen men in and around the compound."

"Seventeen, eh?" Shawn chuckled. "Child's play."

"Let's get moving then." I shoved him forward. Juarez's compound loomed below us. It looked more like a munitions bunker than anything else. Squared concrete corners fenced in on all sides with barbed wire and chain link, the building sported more radio receivers and antennas than a television station. A dozen vans and trucks were lined up outside next to half a dozen semis with trailers.

There were three entrances to the compound. The main entrance was to the west and was currently occupied by a guy chain smoking cigarettes. The south exit was a small side door that led out to a pool house. The third was the east entrance, back by the vehicles and the garages. Except for one other man smoking a cigar by the east entrance, the grounds were empty.

"What's the plan?" Shawn asked a few minutes later. We'd moved silently down the hill and were both tucked in behind the pool house.

"You take the high road, I'll take the low." I muttered.

"Funny man."

"You take the south entrance. I'll take the east. Find the list."

Shawn clapped me on the back and within a moment, he was gone around the other side of the pool house. I knew it wouldn't take him long to get into the building and find himself a good hiding place while he scoped out his surroundings. Now it was my turn, but first I had to get past the cigar smoker. I reached up and touched my comm.

"Joanna, We're going in."


	3. Chapter 2

A few minutes later I found myself inside the compound. Behind me, cigar smoke wafted around an unconscious guard. If one of his friends found him, it would look like he fell asleep at his post. A dead guard would only attract danger. I wanted Shawn and me out of there without anyone knowing we had been there. If Juarez didn't know we had his list, he wouldn't have time to warn his buyers.

"Who lives like this?" I whispered to myself. Our intel had said this compound was where Juarez lived and worked. It had looked like a bunker from the outside and that's what it looked like on the inside. The corridors were cold, grey concrete and the doors were reinforced steel.

"This place looks like its ready for Armageddon." Shawn's voice intoned.

"Considering the amount of weapons Juarez is linked to, that isn't a surprise." Joanna chimed in. "Intel stated Juarez believes another World War is inevitable and he intends to be on top of the game when it happens."

Our conversation fell silent as I came to the first door down my corridor. Though I had seen and heard nothing so far, I wasn't taking chances. I dropped to one knee and pulled out my snake camera, a handy device I employed often for looking in rooms and around corners. The room was empty. I tested the handle and the door swung open easily. The room really was empty save a few tables and stacked chairs. No computers there.

"Just once I'd like to get something in the first few minutes." I muttered.

"Wouldn't we all." Shawn said. "All clear here. I think most of them are downstairs. I can hear a television. I think there's a game on."

The entire east corridor was empty. I came to the end and backed up against the wall. Using the camera again, I peeked around the corner. I'd just found my first tango. A tall dark-haired man stood outside an open doorway, leaning against the frame. In his hand he carried a half-eaten sandwich. The other rested on a sub-machine gun. Beyond him I could see several computers, phones, a fax, and other equipment set up on desks. What I couldn't see was the rest of the room. I couldn't move on the solo tango until I knew he was alone.

I backed up slowly and inched into one of the empty rooms. "Joanna, I've got one tango in a hallway."

"He's alone, Brian. But there are two more in the corridor directly above you." Joanna said. It was times like these I thanked the creators of infrared and heat sensor satellites.

Slipping out again I eased down the corridor until I was a foot from the end of the wall. I pulled a few ball bearings from my pocket and flicked them into the corner of the corridor. I knew this would get my new friend's attention.

"Que está ahí?" I heard the sound of him gripping his weapon. I tensed. I had to time this right. "Gustavo, es que usted?"

The moment the man stepped into view, I lunged for him. I was lucky. I got him in a choke hold and held on tight. Thankfully, he was more intent on getting me to let go than he was on using his weapon.

I deposited the now unconscious man in an empty room. "Tango neutralized."

"Shawn, status?"

"I'm on the second floor." Came the reply. "So far, nothing."

"Gonna be an easy night, eh partner?" I mused as I started looking through the computer equipment in the room I'd just cleared.

"Damn." Shawn's reply wasn't what I had been expecting. He didn't sound happy. "Brian, I've hit a snag."

Normally, I'd send back a wise crack. The strain in his voice was clear and I wait for him to continue.

"I'm boxed in. Some of Juarez's men surprised me. I'm-" His voice broke off, interrupted by the sounds of splintering wood and a door smashing in. My partner's voice dropped to an urgent whisper. "Brian, get out. Mission compromised. Get-"

"Shawn? Shawn!?" I shouted into the comm as loudly as I dared.

My only response was silence. I waited one long agonizingly silent moment. I heard his comm click on again, but the voice I heard wasn't Shawn's.

_"What the Hell is that?"_

_"It's a communication device, idiot. There's someone else in the building with this one. Find them!"_

_"What do we do with him?"_

_"Get Miguel. He'll want to talk to him."_

The conversation ended with two sounds I didn't want to hear. The first was the sound of a pained grunt from Shawn. The second was a shoe stomping our link and cutting me off.

"Shit." I hit my comm again. "Joanna, Shawn's-"

"I know. I'm working on it. His last location was-" Abruptly, Joanna's voice cut off and all I heard was the static of an empty line.

"Damn." I muttered to myself. I hadn't expected Juarez to be high tech enough to be able to cut off our equipment. Now I'd lost contact with my partner and my backup. My job had just become that much harder.

Protocol said I should wait for Joanna to re-establish the link. Protocol said I should get my butt out of there if she didn't. Protocol said a lot of things. Right now, all that mattered to me was that my wingman was hurt and the bad guys had him.

"I knew this wasn't gonna be a good day." I sighed.

_Author's note: My Spanish is terrible. That's supposed to say "Who's there?" and "Gustavo, is that you?"_


	4. Chapter 3

I knew Shawn was somewhere on the second floor. I also knew that within seconds, the stairwells would be covered by Juarez's men. For now, I busied myself with our primary mission. I still had to check the computers.

"Shit." I said as the last one yielded nothing. I checked my weapon, a nervous habit. I hadn't fired it yet tonight and the clip was fill. I was going to need it to go after my partner.

I hugged the wall as I eased down the corridor further into the compound. I could hear footsteps above me as Juarez's men searched the place for me. I also heard a cry of surprise as someone found my sleeping cigar man, Gustavo. The eastern door slammed open and I got ready.

"Shit, its Jose." Someone hissed. Now they'd found my sandwich man. I lifted my weapon.

Two men rounded the corner of the corridor and things suddenly seemed to move in slow motion. They spotted me and stopped cold. I'd always wondered what it must be like for the bad guys we deal with to come up on a Rainbow Six operative. I hoped it gave them the scare of a lifetime. Within a split second, three things happened. One of them swore, the other raised his weapon. I took them both out with a burst of gunfire. Neither was wearing protective gear and it only took a few shots.

People say I should feel bad about all the people I've had to take out. Sometimes I do, for about a minute. Then I think about all the innocent civilians they've killed without another thought or all the people their merchandise has killed. After that, it's not so hard.

"Two down." I muttered. If I counted Gustavo and Jose, that made four. Only thirteen more to go. Wonderful. I turned and started back deeper into the building.

Thirteen soon became twelve, then eleven as I took out two men coming from the stairwell. Number ten was harder. They were on to me now. In the stairwell, I was a sitting duck and they knew it. They also knew I was coming for Shawn. One guy stood watch in the doorway to the second floor, rifle aimed down the stairs. If I even set a foot on the landing, I was dead. I did the only thing I could do.

There was indeed a game on the television in the compound's basement. It looked as though while Juarez was away, his men had staged a little football party. Empty beer bottles and half-eaten plates of food were strewn about in front of one of the biggest television's I'd ever seen. I quickly searched the basement rooms and found them all empty, though I did learn that the basement was the place most of Juarez's men called home.

Up the south stairs, I took out two more guys in quick succession. They hadn't expected me to come all the way around through the basement. I had an advantage, but it was one that didn't last long.

"Get the little bastard!" A gruff voice screamed from the second floor landing.

I played football in high school and I work out every day. I kind of resented the guy calling me little. I moved one foot at a time, eyes on the stairs. There was no going back now. I knew either I got them or they got me.

"You're dead!" One guy yelled before he opened fire. He was a piss poor shot. He landed on his back on the floor, dead, a few moments later.

The second floor was silent as eased up the stairs. Whoever had yelled was gone. There was no one in sight.

"Four on the first floor, east." I ticked off to myself. "Two on the east stairs. Two on the first floor, south. One more on the stairs. Nine."

If Joanna had been right, there were still eight men to go. Eight men stood between me and Shawn and our way out. I liked those odds.


	5. Chapter 4

Upstairs, it was a whole new ballgame. Every few feet it seemed like there was another doorway or a turn in the corridor. I stopped caring about Juarez's buyers list and started worrying more about finding Shawn. Each time I came to a room, I came up empty. I didn't see a computer in sight anyway.

"Come on, you bastards." I whispered to myself.

Around the last corner, I found three men waiting for me in front of a closed door. They stood ready, weapons pointed down the corridor where I would have to turn to move forward. To the third man's left I could see the door to the stairwell leading down. Shawn was in that room and down those stairs meant safety. I wasn't pulling back now.

Luckily, there was one thing those guys hadn't been counting on. I heard all of them curse simultaneously as the frag grenade bounced down the hallway towards them. They slammed into each other trying to get out of its way. The explosion rocked the corridor. I counted to ten, then peeked around the corner. I breathed through my mouth as I stepped over the bodies. It was a hard way to go.

The closed door wasn't locked and I pushed it inward. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. Tied to a chair in the center of the room, his weapons and mask piled on a table nearby, was Shawn.

He looked like Hell. One eye was swollen shut and the other didn't look much better. His cheek was bruised and his lip was still oozing blood from where it had split open. More dried blood was crusted under his nose. He was curled over in the chair, half-conscious. I could only guess about the injuries I couldn't see.

"Shawn?"

His head came up slightly and managed to focus on me. "Tol' you to get out."

"Yeah, well. You still owe me a twenty from the last poker night." I quipped. I pulled my knife out and slit his bonds. His wrists were raw from the thick ropes. "Come on, pal. Let's get you out of here."

"Crazy Yank." He slurred.

"Stubborn Brit." I returned with a chuckle. I hoisted him up against me and took most of his weight. "We're going to talk diet when we get back."

Shawn mumbled a curse and tried to stand on his own. That didn't work either as his legs buckled and he nearly collapsed. I threw his arm around my neck and put my free arm around his waist. This seemed to work, though if we met any of Juarez's men, we'd both be in trouble.

He groaned as we took the first few steps and I felt his whole body react, curling over to protect itself. He was hurting. "Where'd they get you?"

"Where didn't they?" He breathed out through clenched teeth. "Ribs."

"We'll take it easy, then." I reassured him.

"Office." He hissed.

"What?"

"Office. Juarez's office. Through there." Shawn pointed behind us.

A few moments and a few turns of a lockpick later, and we were inside the only part of the building that didn't look like a bunker. I ignored all the cushy furniture and the plasma screen television. My eyes were on the black mahogany desk. More accurately, they were on the computer on top of the desk.

I eased Shawn into the chair and started punching at the keyboard. "I think we might get that list after all."

"Good. I'd hate t' get th' crap beat outta me for nothin'." Shawn slurred.

It took several agonizing minutes to find what I was looking for and load it onto a disk. At least we had what we'd come for. Now we just had to get out. Shawn was starting to come around a bit and was better able to move, but I still had to support him. I sincerely hoped I'd gotten the bastard that had beaten him.


	6. Chapter 5

I knew there were still five more men somewhere in the building. They were secondary in my mind as I worked to keep both me and Shawn from falling down the stairs. I had to give him credit. Shawn had to feel like Hell, but he didn't complain more than an errant groan of pain.

"Almost there." I muttered as we left the stairwell. I had my weapon raised and ready, but there was no one to greet us in the corridor.

I knew why when we reached the east exit. I cracked the door and saw six heads poking up from various points throughout the yard. They'd given up trying to find me inside and were waiting for an easy target when I came through the door. I had a feeling there were more of them at the south and west exits too.

"I see we have a welcoming party." I mused. I needed both hands free to deal with this mess. I helped my partner slide to the floor.

"Brian, go on. Get out of here." Shawn mumbled. "Leave me here."

"Not happening, pal." I snapped back. "We came together, we leave together. Got it?"

"Craziest Yank I've ever met." There was a faint smile on his lips.

I cracked the door again and saw all six men outside tense and shift their weapons. They were ready for me. If I opened the door more than a crack to even try for another frag grenade, they'd take my arm off. I could take out one or two with the door cracked, but after that, I'd need to lose my cover to get a clean shot. A dozen ideas raced through my head, none of them very good. Most of them ended with me and Shawn trying for one of the other exits in the hopes they were less guarded. It wasn't an idea I was all that thrilled to try.

Then, suddenly, I heard the voice of an angel, if angels came from Canada.

"Brian? Brian?" Joanna's voice crackled through my comm.

"Joanna, where the Hell have you been?"

"They jammed the signal. Took me forever to get it back. Are you okay?"

"Peachy." I said. "I've got Shawn. He's hurt."

"Where are you?"

"Just inside the compound, near the eastern exit. They're outside. We're pinned in here. I'm not really into the idea of trying to go back through to the south exit."

"How many of them are there?" She asked.

"A half dozen." If it was all of them, it was a good sign. But I'd seen vehicles in the yard I hadn't seen on my way in. There were either more of them lying in wait throughout the building or they were waiting at the south and west exits. "On the plus side, I managed to upload Juarez's contact list."

"Good." If nothing else, Joanna could tell Six we'd done what we set out to do. Not that it would do much good now. By this time tomorrow, the contact list would be old news. "We're taking off, Brian. Connors can take them out from the air."

"Small miracles." I muttered. I glanced at Shawn. "Hear that?"

He grunted. "Guess I still have to owe you that twenty."

"Guess you do."

The sounds of the chopper's rotors were always music to my ears when our missions were over It meant a hot shower, a cold beer, and the knowledge we'd just finished putting another chink in the bad guys' chains. Tonight, it also meant that Shawn and I were both getting out alive.

"Hold on, Brian." Joanna's voice was mixed with the sounds of gunfire, both from the ground and above. "Okay…Juarez's men are backing off. They're taking cover behind the building. We're setting down."

I didn't much like the idea of going outside knowing I could still be shot in the back.

""We're on the ground."

Shawn groaned aloud as I hoisted him up off the floor, but he didn't say more. He leaned against the wall as I kicked open the outer door and held it open against the wind generated by the rotors.

I heard loud cursing from the side of the building and shouted orders to stop us leaving. None of it did any good as Josh Connors, one of our backup operatives, sent bursts of gunfire towards the building to ward them off.

"Hey beautiful." I grinned at Joanna as we climbed in.

"Hey yourself." She looked as relieved as I felt. "Shawn, you look like Hell."

"Thanks." He said, trying to glare at her through his one good eye.

The chopper took off to a last few bursts of fire from Connors weapon. We left Juarez's men running in circles. Looking back down at the building, I let myself think about how close both Shawn and I had come to getting killed. I didn't let the thought linger for long. We were Rainbow Six. It was all part of the job.


End file.
